Letter to the Bulldog Nation
I wanted to take a moment and tell you how much I am enjoying being the Superintendent of the HamptonSchoolDistrict. This has been a real blessing in my life, and the opportunity to work in a community which cares so much about their school district and their young people is a real joy. I know not everything is perfect everyday, but it is a great place to make a difference in the lives of young people. I also want to take a moment and recap some great things we have accomplished here in the past semester.
First, the year started earlier as we began to try out a new school calendar. It has gone very well for our students and faculty, and it seems to be very positive for the parents I have spoken with thissemester. Ourstudentand faculty absenteeism is down, and we believe this to be a direct result of the new calendar.
We have started work on next year's calendar and I have begun to make small adjustments to make it even better. One example is a shift in when we take the October break so it will align more with the state fair. This will allow our agricultural students to attend the livestock shows without missing so much school. This calendar will go to the teachers and staff for input and be presented to the board for approval in January, so stay tuned for that to be out very soon.
We finally have completed the roof project at the elementary school and the difference that has made in our utility expenses is already being noted. We also spent the summer working on the HVAC system at the elementary and while we have miles to go before this is a completed project we can honestly say the equipment upgrades have been a blessing for many of our classrooms. The state has awarded us some matching funds to do more work in this area, but we will not know the exact amount of funds for this project until sometime in May.
We have also sold some old broken down buses and added another new 77 passenger bus to our fleet. The upgrade to our bus fleet is now starting to happen on a rotation so that our students will have some new transportation equipment on a continual basis. Mr. Sanders also spent the summer rotating all of our older buses through various shops in order to ensure that all the maintenance and repairs were completed.
Mr. Sanders and the maintenance staff continue to clean and organize our campus on a daily basis. We have cleaned out our storage buildings, organized our bus shop and equipment, and made the place look and feel like a top notch campus.
See 'Letter to the Public' Page 4 The cafeteria also saw a complete overhaul of their HVAC system, along with a rebuild of the refrigeration and freezer compressors. These upgrades were overdue and have really made a difference in the atmosphere of the cafeteria. We also entered into a new food service contract with a company called School Eats. This change was in an effort to lower our food cost, provide meal preparation training for our cafeteria staff, and to improve the quality of food for our students and faculty. It worked! We are feeding on average 40% more students and staff than we did in the previous year. The students and adults have given us lots of positive feedback on the meals and the kids look forward to eating in the cafeteria. They have been able to provide several tastings for our students and we have even been able to introduce some new food to our students. Crystal Martin is our new food service director and she has done an amazing job along with her staff of continuing to make great improvements for the students of Hampton Schools.
In the past semester, Hampton has added another preschool classroom taking our capacity for preschool students from 20 to 40 students. While these classrooms are on our campus they are being maintained and financed through the South Central EducationalCooperative. Ithasbeenareal joy to see the preschool students develop over the past five months. This is a true academic pre-school and is providing a real educational advantage for the students enrolledhereatHampton. Mrs.Shanna Lamb and her ladies work with these babies everyday and we are blessed to be a part of their growth. We hope these students will choose to remain Hampton Bulldogs for the next 14 years and provide us with the gift of watching them grow up.
With help from Sharon Jones, Terry Clark, and numerous others, we have spent a great deal of time talking about and revamping our emergency and disaster preparedness. We have done routine tornado, fire, bus evacuation, and lock down drills in an effort to make our school as safe and prepared as we possibly can. Safety has been a major focus this semester and if you have driven by campus you can see new security fencing going up around the front of the school now. This will help us direct visitors toward safe and appropriate entrances. This will also go a long way toward keeping strangers off our campus when students are present. This fence project was funded by a state grant and will be completed at minimal cost to the district. The fence will allow kids to exit, but will not allow unauthorized persons to enter. The district also received state grant money to add visitor scanning software to our Elementary and High School office. This software will scan the driver's license of all visitors against the state criminal registry and print an identification badge allowing all staff to know who is an authorizedvisitoroncampus. Keepingour students safe is the priority for all Hampton employees.
Academically the students of Hampton have completed the first Arkansas based standardized test. This test is called ATLAS and was administered to students at the end of last year. Our Kindergarten students were given the ATLAS screener's at the beginningofthisyear. Thisexamisthe first of its kind due to the fact that it was written by the state of Arkansas to reflect the standards of the Arkansas Curriculum. Like any new product being put out for the first time there were some glitches and issues that arose, but we finally got scores back around October. Our scores showed areas of growth and provided us with some brightspots. MoreimportantlyATLAS showeduswherewecanbebetter. Both Mrs. Keli Inzer and Mrs. Krysta Parker have put a plan in place to remediate students in academic areas where students may need more support. The faculty at both schools have joined with the efforts of the administration to make an educational difference for our students. We are now able to measure growth on a continual basis through the work being done in Response to Intervention (RTI) assignments. This moves us toward a system that meets the needs of each individual student. This focus on high academic achievement will open the door for students to have choices when they graduate. Not every student wants to attend a four year university, but our goal is to make sure that students can choose from a variety of options after High School. Students should be able to choose college or work force.
One of the things I try to do every time we accomplish something is to ask myself “okay, what’s next”? So what's next for Hampton Schools? 1.In the coming semester we will begin training a group of staff members as Certified School Security Officers. These staff members will act not only as security but will be trained in first aid and act as our emergency response team. This is all in an effort to continue to increase the safety for our students. 2.Hampton Seventh and Eighth Grades will pilot a program for cell phones, by usingphonepouches. Phoneshave become not only an educational issue for students but as studies show us, the negative emotional and mental toll they are having on our young people is alarming. The devices have become addictive and a real distraction to the students. Thispilotgroupofstudents will be issued a pouch. They will put their phone, earbuds, and/or iwatch in the pouch in the morning and this pouch will then be closed and locked. The students will then be able to keep their devices in their possession, but will not be able to unlock them until the end of the day. Wehopetohelpfocusthestudents on their academic achievement and to limit some of the negative impact these devices are having on them. If this goes well we plan to add more grade levels over the next few years. 3.We continue to look for ways to improve our facilities, especially in areas where students are concerned. We have had a very successful Tennis program and we are searching for ways to upgrade our tennis facilities. This could include building new or additional courts, or resurfacing and upgrading our current courts. Along with a new surface, we would like to add lights and new fencing. This is a very costly project and could take some time to accomplish. 4.We should also be starting a small project to fix the tornado damage done to the Elementary office and the Elementary gym. This work should start soon. 5.We will begin the work to reestablish a Parent Teacher Organization. This is in an effort to increase the involvement of our parents and community members in the school system. I truly believe that it takes a village to raise a child. I am scheduling several meetings with community members who want to be a part of the planning and organization of a PTO for Hampton Schools. I would love to hear about your ideas and your vision for this organization. 6.Academics is always a focus for the Hampton School District. In order to better accommodate the learning needs of our students, we will start to look at ways to optimize the schedule for learning opportunities. Providing our Elementary students as much academic time in the morning with their activities in the afternoon, looking at the state standards we have mastered and deciding which standards need more support, evaluating our RTI process and focusing on the areas which still need improvement, and putting a larger emphasis on our writing skills will be areas of concern for the coming semester. Hampton will begin to try and get away from digital device driven learning and move toward a more direct instructional approach. The Hampton Faculty and Staff wishes each of you a Merry and Blessed Holiday Season. Welookforwardtoworking with your children, our community, and each of you to make Hampton the number one school in the state. Thank you all for allowing me to lead your schools and be a partofsuchawonderfulcommunity. GO DOGS!
Sincerely, Matt Scarbrough Superintendent Hampton Public Schools
